Dielectric elastomer powered boat and electricity generator and associated method

Abstract

A system is disclosed in which ocean wave power compresses smart electro-active polymers (EAP) material. Dielectric elastomers (DE) convert ocean wave power pressure into electrical current. Advantageously, DE has a very high power density and elasticity. The resultant electrical power is directly used to operate an electric motor of a boat screw propeller or stored in a lithium-ion battery for any other use. The mechanical work produced by the movement of ocean waves can also be transformed into electrical current via a crank shaft and a dynamo using very strong magnets or neodymium magnets that are made of a combination of neodymium, iron, and boron (NdFeB). An underwater and above water screw propeller propagates the boat at high speed across the ocean. Electrical power produced on board during port parking or unused energy is connected to a transformer or supplied for recharging electrical vehicles or port lighting.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]This invention relates to ecologically friendly water vehicle power generators and, more particularly, to a dielectric elastomer powered water vehicle and electricity generator that reduces CO2 emissions.PRIOR ART[0002]The concept of Dielectric Elastomers (DE) was historically discovered first around 1775 by French Nicolas-Phillipe Ledru. For example, Ledru discovered that a substance or a material can be deformed or altered in volume, length or width by an electric current. In particular, Ledru noticed mercury, in a temperature column, would rise if current was applied. Then, in 1776, Italian Alessandro Volta explained the volume changes in a Leyden jar when an electric current passed through it and he was the first to give the right interpretation of this phenomenon. Later, in 1880, German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen described how a rubber substance would increase in length if current was applied to it. This was the birth of the so-called actu...

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Benefits of technology

[0013]In view of the foregoing background, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a simple power generating device and mechanism that utilizes the ocean wave energy/power to propel a boat and/or generate electrical pow

Problems solved by technology

The continuous burning of fossil oil to generate electricity or to run motor engines has a dangerous and threatening side effect, which is the emission of CO2.

However the rate at which the world is producing CO2 is threatening in particularly if one takes into consideration the emission in the past ten years of CO2 by the emerging markets in Asia and South America.

Unfortunately, CO2 has a very long life time in the atmosphere (compared with other toxics like nitric oxides or sulfur oxides).

The use of fossil fuel also entails the transportation of crude oil across the oceans and possible catastrophic environmental effects in the events of oil spills.

Further, CO2 dissolves in water to form an acid which becomes dangerous in high concentration to marine life and marine-eco-system.

High emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere and contamination of rivers and the oceans (today the oceans have reached dangerous levels of acidity where the pH value of the water have dropped to levels in which reproduction and growth of species are being compromised in particular plankton, the main a

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